Russia largely thwarts Ukrainian drone attacks in Moscow and Crimea, Kremlin says
Mike Brest
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Russian authorities said they successfully prevented Ukrainian drone attacks against Moscow and occupied Crimea early on Monday.
The Russian foreign ministry said it was able to stop two drones that were deployed to strike the capital using electronic warfare. While they crashed, no one was injured and there was only damage to two non-residential buildings. Russia accused Ukraine of being behind the attack, and a defense intelligence official told CNN that Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, an arm of the Ministry of Defense, carried out the plot.
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“All the drones have been neutralized today, and measures are being taken,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said afterward. “As for the development of the defense system, ensuring its more intensive work, this is a question for the Ministry of Defense.”
The ministry, after more than a year of targeting Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, accused Ukraine of resorting to “terrorist methods” by “intimidation of the civilian population.
“These attacks had no military meaning,” the statement said. “We strongly condemn this yet another crime of the Kyiv regime. We call on international organizations to give it a proper assessment. Behind the brazen actions of Ukrainian neo-Nazis is the West’s focus on further aggravating the situation.”
The foreign ministry also said the country “reserves the right to take tough retaliatory measures.”
Russia also claimed that 17 drones were involved in an attack in Russian-occupied Crimea, 14 of which were suppressed by electronic warfare. There were no casualties, though an ammunition depot in the Dzhankoy district was hit. UAV shrapnel damaged a private house in the Kirovsky district.
Traffic on the railroad and highways of parts of Crimea has been suspended “for safety reasons” following the incident, Sergey Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed governor of the annexed territory, said on Monday.
In the latest developments of the war, Russia has begun attacking Ukraine’s port cities, including Odessa, after pulling out of a grain agreement to allow Ukrainian exports to leave the country. Since withdrawing, Odessa has been heavily targeted by Russian forces, which have destroyed hundreds of tons of food intended to help people across the globe.
Russian leaders have said they now consider vessels in the Black Sea to be involved in aiding Ukraine.
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Russian missiles damaged dozens of Ukrainian architectural landmarks on Monday. A historic Orthodox cathedral in Odessa was one of about two dozen monuments that were destroyed, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
“Russians deliberately aimed their missiles at the historic city center of Odessa, which is under UNESCO protection. Everything that was built with hard work by great architects is now being destroyed by cynical inhumans,” Oleh Kiper, head of Odessa’s regional military administration, said, while Zelensky noted, “There has never been a terrorist capable of overcoming the world, and these Kremlin madmen will not succeed either.”